Nikon D5500 review: A good camera, but lacks consistency

We reviewed the Nikon D5500 back in 2015 and has since dropped in price. It can now be found for around £436 and can be found for even cheaper if bought second hand through eBay. The camera is hard to source as it has been discontinued, but is it now worth its price tag?

The Nikon D5300 that we also reviewed was a case of close but no cigar. There’s no shortage of superb SLRs and compact system cameras (CSCs), and for around £650, the price we originally reviewed the D5300, and at the time didn’t do enough to stand out. Note: Review, specs based on 18-55mm VR II kit.

It’s a bit of a surprise, to see the D5500, with the D5300 being so similar. The LCD screen is now touch-sensitive, GPS has disappeared, a couple of buttons have moved and the command dial has been redesigned. There’s a new Picture Control preset called Flat that’s unlikely to set the photographic world alight, although it’s more useful for video capture. The best change is the increased battery life, from 600 to 820 shots. That’s roughly double what rival cameras manage.

Nikon D5500 review: Build quality and controls

Our gripes with the controls in Nikon’s consumer SLRs are well documented, with an over-reliance on menu navigation at the expense of direct button access. As such, the move to a touchscreen is significant. Pressing the “i” button – either the physical button or the on-screen icon – calls up a grid of 14 functions, and tapping the screen to choose a function and again to adjust its value was generally much quicker than doing so via the buttons. Sadly it’s not possible to adjust settings using the command dial.

Navigating the main menu using the touchscreen is faster too, but we still can’t summon any enthusiasm for this menu system. It’s arranged in a haphazard order with key functions in weird places. For example, the first two options in the Shooting Menu allow you to change the file and folder names, whereas the option to toggle Auto ISO on and off is tucked away in a submenu. This should really be available alongside the manual ISO speed controls and accessible from the “i” button, and at the very least right at the top of the main menu. Another long-standing grievance is how the self-timer switches off after every shot, even when the two-second timer is selected for steady shooting with a tripod. It might sound trivial, but it’s pretty tedious having to re-enable it after every shot.

The touchscreen is a big benefit in live view mode, allowing the autofocus point to be moved instantaneously. The fully articulated design and unusually large 3.2in screen size are particularly welcome in live view mode too. Live view autofocus remains slow, though, taking between one and three seconds to lock onto subjects.

Surprisingly, the touchscreen also plays a role when shooting with the viewfinder. At first we couldn’t work out why the camera beeped each time we looked through the viewfinder. Then we noticed that the grid to help with composition appeared and disappeared each time. It turned out our inconveniently placed nose was to blame – something you too will discover if you use your left eye to look through the viewfinder. Apparently, Nikon expects people to use their right eye instead, whereupon the right side of the screen can be used as a finger-controlled surface. Switching the grid on and off is a bit of a wasted opportunity but there are lots of other options, including focus point selection. Moving the selected point with a quick gesture on the touchscreen was by far the quickest method we’ve used for a phase-detect autofocus system.

Nikon D5500 review: Focus and Speed

It helps that the D5500’s 39-point autofocus is particularly well specified for this class of camera (the Canon 750D offers 19 points while the Pentax K-S2 has 11). The D5500’s more generous allocation makes it easier to line up a focus point with the subject rather than the other way around. It also facilitates subject tracking – something its rivals lack. Select 3D Tracking and from the moment the shutter button is half-pressed, the active autofocus point moves to follow subjects around the frame.

It’s a great feature for capturing moving subjects, but the D5500’s continuous performance is nothing to get excited about. It managed 5fps for 21 frames before slowing to 2.5fps for JPEGs – a typical result for SLRs at this price but rival CSCs range from 7fps to 11fps. Still, we’re pleased to see that enabling Auto Distortion Control in the menu (which skews JPEGs to compensate for lens distortions) no longer takes a heavy toll on continuous performance.

For RAW capture, the D5500 managed just six frames at 4fps before slowing to 1.1fps. Switching from 14-bit to 12-bit RAW files gave better performance, at 5fps for 9 frames, slowing to 1.4fps. Again, this is a typical result for an SLR at this price, but rival CSCs are much faster and keep going for longer. SLR technology used to be synonymous with fast performance but it’s a reputation that’s no longer deserved.

Nikon D5500 review: Video

The video mode is a mixed bag. Video picture quality is excellent, with the same flattering colours as in the camera’s JPEGs and crisp fine details that make the most of the 1080p resolution. The Flat Picture Control preset is a useful starting point for video colour correction, with low contrast that makes colours look drab but provides some extra shadow and highlight detail to play with. There’s a comprehensive choice of frame rates, with 10-minute clip lengths at 50 and 60fps and 20 minutes at 24, 25 and 30fps.

Manual exposure is available but the aperture is fixed for the duration of clips. It is possible to adjust the shutter and ISO speed while recording but only via the command dial and not the touchscreen, so the soundtrack suffers as a result. The soundtrack also picked up whirs from the autofocus motor, and focus updates rather clumsily and only when the shutter button is half-pressed. Once again, it’s a decent effort but CSCs generally offer superior video autofocus and better manual exposure control.

Nikon D5500 review: Photo quality – Click samples to enlarge

Photo quality is the D5500’s chance to really shine, and in most of our tests that’s exactly what it did. The 24-megapixel sensor captured masses of detail, and it was faithfully portrayed in the camera’s JPEG output. Automatic exposures were expertly judged, with lots of shadow and highlight detail. Noise levels were exceptionally low, producing print-quality JPEGs all the way up to ISO 6400.

The 18-55mm kit lens was less impressive, though. Photos at apertures around f/8 were sharp in the centre but much less so towards the edges of the frame, especially for wide-angle shots. With the aperture opened up to f/3.5, details were so hazy that we thought there was a problem with the autofocus. Eventually we realised that this was the best this lens could muster at wide apertures. It’s not a disaster but a lens upgrade is likely to be a priority for many people. The D5500 is available body-only for around £610, and we’d recommend budgeting at least £300 on a lens that can do the sensor justice.

^ Exposure is well judged in this high-contrast scene, and detail levels are reasonable in the foreground plane of focus. (1/200s, f/7.1, ISO 100, 52mm equivalent)

^ Excellent handling of shadows and highlights, and fine details are precise in the areas of sharp focus. (1/200s, f/7.1, ISO 100, 82mm equivalent)

^ The dense foliage is crisp in the centre of this wide-angle frame, but the edges are much softer. (1/250s, f/8, ISO 100, 27mm equivalent)

^ With the aperture opened right up to f/3.5, fine details all but disappear. (1/1,000s, f/3.5, ISO 100, 27mm equivalent)

^ Superb low noise performance means the D5500 has no problems with indoor ambient light. (1/60s, f/4.8, ISO 2200, 57mm equivalent)

^ Even ISO 5600 gives presentable JPEGs with minimal grain and plenty of fine detail. (1/80s, f/5, ISO 5600, 67mm equivalent)

Nikon D5500 review: Verdict

The kit lens is a significant setback for people who don’t anticipate buying additional lenses anytime soon. For others, there’s a lot to like here but we can’t help feeling that this camera could be better. The operational niggles would be easy to iron out with a firmware update, but they’ve persisted across numerous updated models. Autofocus in live view and video modes is slow compared to the Canon 700D. Meanwhile, CSCs at the same price offer larger viewfinders, faster performance, superior video modes and smaller bodies. Many come with significantly better kit lenses too.

If you can find the camera in a good condition for under £400, I’d be inclined to add it to a shortlist, if not opt, for the 700D instead.